All sectoral indices led by metal and capital goods were trading in positive zone with gains up to 1.33 per cent.

Sensex hits new high of 26,520.73; Nifty breaches 7,900-mark

Mumbai, Aug 19: Continuing their rising spree for the sixth straight day, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty today hit new records of 26,520.73 and 7,912.05 respectively in opening trade on robust buying by foreign funds coupled with firming trend overseas. The BSE 30-share barometer spurted by 129.77 points, or 0.46 per cent, to hit yet another record high of 26,520.73, crossing its previous high of 26,413.11 touched yesterday. The gauge had gained 1,061.82 points in the past five sessions.

All sectoral indices led by metal and capital goods were trading in positive zone with gains up to 1.33 per cent. The NSE Nifty also maintained its rising trend and breached the 7,900-mark for the first time by gaining 37.80 points, or 0.48 per cent, to trade at new life-time high of 7,912.05, surpassing its earlier high of 7,880.50 touched yesterday. Besides widespread buying by funds and retail investors on the back of encouraging Q1 earnings by several bluechip companies, strong rupee and fall in global crude prices helped the key indices — Sensex and Nifty — to scale new highs, stock brokers said.

Further, a firming trend in other Asian markets on easing concerns over Ukraine and overnight gains in US markets influenced trading sentiments here, they said. Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.91 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.36 per cent in early trade today.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Averageended 1.06 per cent higher in yesterday’s trade.